The invention described herein was made by an employee of the United States Government, and may be manufactured and used by or for the Government for governmental purposes without the payment of royalties thereon or therefor.
1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to optical observations and, more particularly, to methods and systems for collecting data from multiple fields of view.
2. Background Art
Telescopes typically are required to operate through multiple fields of view. This requirement may result from the area of interest being larger than a single field of view of the telescope. For example, in terrain mapping applications, the terrain of interest may be larger then a single field of view of the telescope.
Operating through multiple fields of view may also be desirable in applications, such as wind monitoring, that benefit from multiple viewing angles.
It is an object of the present invention to provide relatively efficient methods and systems for collecting data from multiple fields of view.
To achieve this and other objects of the present invention, a method comprises receiving light from a first field; responsive to a wavelength received in the previous step, projecting from an optical assembly to a first location; detecting light projected in the previous step; receiving light from a second field; responsive to the wavelength received in the previous step, projecting from the optical assembly; detecting light projected in the previous step; and processing a result of the detecting steps, wherein the optical assembly is stationary relative to the first location.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a system comprises a first projector that projects light received from a first field to a first location; a detector that generates electrical signal responsive to light from the first projector; a second projector that projects light received from a second field; and a processor that receives and processes electrical signals representing light from first and second projectors, wherein the first and second projectors are stationary relative to the detector.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a system comprises means for receiving light from a first field; means responsive to a wavelength received by the previous means, for projecting from an optical assembly to a first location; means for detecting light projected by the previous mean s; means for receiving light from a second field; means responsive to the wavelength received in the previous step, for projecting from the optical assembly; means detecting light projected by the previous means; and means for processing signals from the detecting means, wherein the optical assembly is stationary relative to the detecting means.